The Infinite Cosmos

Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology

Joseph Silk

A thought-provoking tour through the cosmos, led by renowned cosmologist and science writer Joseph Silk

Explains the most recent discoveries in cosmology, from high-energy views of space, to dark energy and supermassive black holes

Weaves into the story the ideas of writers, poets and philosophers, reflecting on the progress of science, the implications of our discoveries, and our perpetual fascination with the Universe

The Infinite Cosmos

Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology

Joseph Silk

Description

In The Infinite Cosmos Joseph Silk takes the reader on a tour of the universe, past, present, and future, showing how the very latest observations and theories are unlocking clues about its origin and structure: X-ray, radio, and high-energy views of the most distant reaches of the universe. Theories from the frontiers of current research seek to explain its structure from the first moments to the present day, and we are beginning to understand its extraordinary nature and possible fate. This is a story involving the visible and the invisible; subatomic particles and unusual forces; long ages of darkness and spectacular and violent events. It tells of supernovae, dark matter, dark energy, curved spacetime, colliding galaxies, and supermassive black holes. Weaving the ideas of poets and writers as well as scientists into the story, from Kant and Keats to Einstein and Lemaître, Silk explains our present state of knowledge, and how much more there is to understand about our infinite cosmos.

The Infinite Cosmos

Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology

Joseph Silk

Table of Contents

1. Introduction2. Perspectives3. Principles4. Our neighbourhood5. The universe of galaxies6. The invisible cosmos7. Supermassive black holes and the birth of galaxies8. Clusters and clustering9. Space is nearly flat10. Dark energy and the runaway universe11. The panacea of cold dark matter12. Origins13. The seeds of structure14. Beyond the beginning15. Towards the infinite universe16. From time to time machines17. A brief moment in time18. Into the infinite future19. And so to God20. Where next?Index

The Infinite Cosmos

Questions from the Frontiers of Cosmology

Joseph Silk

Author Information

Joseph Silk is Savilian Professor of Astronomy at the University of Oxford. He has published a number of books on cosmology for the general reader, including The Big Bang (W. H. Freeman), The Left Hand of Creation (with J. D. Barrow, published by Oxford University Press), and On the Shores of the Unknown (Cambridge University Press).